Schumer: Maffei Reminds Me of (Republican) Ex-Congressman

While in Syracuse today to endorse former Rep. Dan Maffei’s effort to re-take his seat from the woman who defeated him in 2010, GOP Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, US Sen. Chuck Schumer favorably compared his fellow Democrat to the Republican who preceded him in office.

“I never had a better partner than Dan Maffei,” Schumer said. “He worked so hard. “He reminded me frankly of Jim Walsh in terms of the dedication, hard work and success that he had in bringing dollars here. And we miss him. We need him. There is a void right now and we are not getting the same thing.”

“When you are a Congressmember and you say ‘I’m for cutting everything’, you can’t bring back dollars, you can’t bring back programs you can’t bring back infrastructure to your region. And that is just what his opponent is done. So I believe that for the good of Central New York, Dan Maffei is the guy.”

Walsh, who retired at the end of 2009, was a moderate Republican who represented the district (now NY-24, previously known in its pre-redistricting days as NY-25) for two decades. Some might take issue with my characterization of Walsh as moderate, but I would argue that compared to the current crop of Tea Partiers – including Buerkle – that’s a more than apt description.

Moderate Republicans are an endangered species in D.C. these days. I’m not sure whether Schumer’s comparison of Maffei, who once worked for the most liberal member of the New York delegation – Rep. Charlie Rangel – is going to help him or hurt him (or maybe neither). But NY-24 is still pretty closely divided, enrollment-wise, with just a slight Republican edge, so maybe this was a smart strategy on the senior senator’s part.